How Parliament's failure to clearly articulate immigration policy forces judges to take control

Why does the government get defeated so often in immigration cases? Matt Williams explains that the language used in relevant legislation has been increasingly unclear, leaving it up to judges to debate the meaning and intention of policy

Feasibility study of a permanently implanted prosthetic hand

The feasibility of a permanently implanted prosthetic hand was evaluated from both an internal biocompatibility and exterior mechanics point of view. A literature review of the issues involved in permanent implantation of a percutanious device was performed in the areas of bone interaction and fixation and neural interface control. A theoretical implant was designed for a 90th percentile male, using an HA-G-Ti composite material to provide a permanent base to which the hand could attach. Using a radial implant length of 1.87 inches and an ulna implant length of 1.32 inches, the simulated implant could withstand a push out force of 10,260 pounds. Using nerve guidance channels and micro-electrode arrays, a Regenerative Neural Interface was postulated to control the implant. The use of Laminin-5 was suggested as a method of preventing the lack of wound closure observed in percutaneous devices. The exterior portion of a permanent artificial hand was analyzed by the construction of a robotic hand optimized for weight, size, grip force and wrist torque, power consumption and range of motion. Using a novel dual drive system, each finger was equipped with both joint position servos as well as a tendon. Fine grip shape was formed using the servos, while the tendon was pulled taunt when grasping an object. Control of the prosthetic was performed using a distributed network of micro-controllers. Each finger\u27s behavior was governed by a master/slave system where input from a control glove was processed by a master controller with joint servo and tendon instructions passed to lower-level controllers for management of hand actuators. The final weight of the prototype was 3.85 pounds and was approximately 25% larger than the 90th percentile male hand it was based on. Grip force was between 1.25 and 2 pounds per finger, depending on amount of finger flexion with a wrist lifting capacity of 1.2 pounds at the center of the palm. The device had an average current draw of 3 amps in both normal operation and tight grasping. Range of motion was similar to that of the human model. Overall feasibility is examined and factors involved in industrial implementation are also discussed

Point-Particle Effective Field Theory I: Classical Renormalization and the Inverse-Square Potential

Singular potentials (the inverse-square potential, for example) arise in many situations and their quantum treatment leads to well-known ambiguities in choosing boundary conditions for the wave-function at the position of the potential's singularity. These ambiguities are usually resolved by developing a self-adjoint extension of the original problem; a non-unique procedure that leaves undetermined which extension should apply in specific physical systems. We take the guesswork out of this picture by using techniques of effective field theory to derive the required boundary conditions at the origin in terms of the effective point-particle action describing the physics of the source. In this picture ambiguities in boundary conditions boil down to the allowed choices for the source action, but casting them in terms of an action provides a physical criterion for their determination. The resulting extension is self-adjoint if the source action is real (and involves no new degrees of freedom), and not otherwise (as can also happen for reasonable systems). We show how this effective-field picture provides a simple framework for understanding well-known renormalization effects that arise in these systems, including how renormalization-group techniques can resum non-perturbative interactions that often arise, particularly for non-relativistic applications. In particular we argue why the low-energy effective theory tends to produce a universal RG flow of this type and describe how this can lead to the phenomenon of reaction {\em catalysis}, in which physical quantities (like scattering cross sections) can sometimes be surprisingly large compared to the underlying scales of the source in question. We comment in passing on the possible relevance of these observations to the phenomenon of the catalysis of baryon-number violation by scattering from magnetic monopoles.Comment: LaTeX, 20 pages plus appendi

'It's all my interpretation': reading Spike through the subcultural celebrity of James Marsters

This article considers how fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel interpret the character of Spike through meanings attached to actor James Marsters as a 'subcultural celebrity'. Work on TV’s celebrity actors has stressed how character and actor can become semiotically blurred. Rather than approaching this blurring of textual and extra-textual connotations as an essential property of television celebrity, we analyse how Marsters displays situated agency by discursively constructing 'himself' in publicity materials as 'like Spike'. We then consider Marsters as a reader of Buffy. As a subcultural celebrity, we argue that Marsters is positioned between media producers and media fans, and therefore is able to offer up privileged interpretations of 'his' character, Spike, while simultaneously observing the symbolic power of producers’ preferred readings. Marsters supports certain fan readings of Spike, acting as a textual poacher who nevertheless is 'inside' the texts of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel

Point-Particle Effective Field Theory II: Relativistic Effects and Coulomb/Inverse-Square Competition

We apply point-particle effective field theory (PPEFT) to compute the leading shifts due to finite-size source effects in the Coulomb bound energy levels of a relativistic spinless charged particle. This is the analogue for spinless electrons of the contribution of the charge-radius of the source to these levels, and we disagree with standard calculations in several ways. Most notably we find there are two effective interactions with the same dimension that contribute to leading order in the nuclear size. One is the standard charge-radius contribution, while the other is a contact interaction whose leading contribution to $\delta E$ arises linearly in the small length scale, $\epsilon$, characterizing the finite-size effects, and is suppressed by $(Z\alpha)^5$. We argue that standard calculations miss the contributions of this second operator because they err in their choice of boundary conditions at the source for the wave-function of the orbiting particle. PPEFT predicts how this boundary condition depends on the source's charge radius, as well as on the orbiting particle's mass. Its contribution turns out to be crucial if the charge radius satisfies $\epsilon \lesssim (Z\alpha)^2 a_B$, with $a_B$ the Bohr radius, since then relativistic effects become important. We show how the problem is equivalent to solving the Schr\"odinger equation with competing Coulomb, inverse-square and delta-function potentials, which we solve explicitly. A similar enhancement is not predicted for the hyperfine structure, due to its spin-dependence. We show how the charge-radius effectively runs due to classical renormalization effects, and why the resulting RG flow is central to predicting the size of the energy shifts. We discuss how this flow is relevant to systems having much larger-than-geometric cross sections, and the possible relevance to catalysis of reactions through scattering with monopoles.Comment: LaTeX, 22 pages plus appendices, v3: revised appendices, made more precise and concise discussion about proton radius for mesonic system

Managing The Accreditation Goal For A Multi-Campus Business School

This qualitative study examines the complex issue of a multi-campus business school charged with the goal of accreditation. A review of the literature is followed with survey insights from 22 business school Deans with multi-campus experience, analyzed using constant comparative analysis to seek solution for three central issues (1) to increase the proportion of full-time faculty; (2) encourage scholarship; and (3) foster multi-campus relations. The key findings suggest the central roles of leadership to motivate all constituents, funding, articulation of expectations, and degree for branch autonomy

State of the water sector report 2015

The Australian Water Association and Deloitte are pleased to present the State of the Water Sector Report 2015. The Report is the only one of its kind, reporting on the trends and insights of water sector professionals about their own industry. The survey results reveal attitudes and behaviours relating to a range of topics affecting the industry. This year marks the fifth year that the survey has been run and, as such, a summary of trends across the five years has been included in this year’s report. Trends observed over the last five years operational efficiency first emerged as an issue affecting the water sector in 2013, due to growing concerns about the need to control costs and demonstrate value for money, both within the sector itself and for customers. This rose to become the primary issue and area of concern in 2014 as operational costs continued to rise and new capital investment costs were being passed on to customers. In 2015 operational efficiency remains the second biggest issue for the industry, with efficiencies still to be gained through asset management, process improvement and works management and systems improvement. Skills shortages, and talent attraction and retention were of significant concern when the survey commenced five years ago, with the issue of ageing workforces in particular seen by many as a looming threat for the industry. However, in more recent years these concerns have almost halved due to a reduction in demand for additional staff and the greater availability of skilled labour, given construction activity in the mining industry has eased. Unconventional gas came onto the industry’s radar in 2012. last year, 70% of respondents stated that they believed unconventional gas had a significant to moderate effect on the overall management of ground- or surface water. In 2015, 55% of respondents stated that produced water from unconventional gas activities can be treated to a suitable quality for irrigation and other purposes, nevertheless highlighting some concerns in relation to the oil and gas sector impact. Although climate change was identified by 86% of respondents last year as posing a significant or moderate risk to sustainable management of water, sustainability is rated as less important than in previous years, with it being ranked as one of the top issues for the sector in 2011. This may be due to broader changes in community sentiment regarding environmental issues, and more benign weather conditions. While the sector believed security of supply was being managed well, climate change, as well as population growth, is viewed as one of the greatest challenges over the next five years. from a price and regulatory perspective, satisfaction with the role of economic regulators continues to increase slowly, and an increasing proportion of respondents support regulators making deterministic decisions on prices, rather than just monitoring prices. However, a price monitoring role is still favoured by more than three times as many respondents as deterministic pricing. 2015 Key issues The price of water and water regulation Water sector professionals’ perceptions of customer beliefs Sources of water Digital technology Asset management and operational efficiency -- State based reports are also available at AWA\u27s websit